Women suffer fifty bad skin days a year

Let’s be honest ladies (and men; more then you think these days) we worry about our skin. The huge spot that appears on the morning of a night out, teenage acne and flaky skin scare me more than anything I saw on Halloween.

Occasionally I do wonder what everyone’s “magic number” is, no not sexual partners, steady on. I am talking about the number of bad skin days a woman will suffer in a year. Well new research has discovered that the average woman will suffer from 50 bad skin days in a typical year.

Researchers found that the typical women is plagued by acne, redness and flaking skin for at least four days of every month. The biggest complaint women had was acne – with 47 per cent of the 2000 adults polled, confessing to still being blighted with the skin complaint well in to adulthood.

The study, by Superdrug, found one in three women shy away from talking to people because they are so self-conscious about the state of their skin. And one in twenty are scared to speak to the opposite sex when they are experiencing a ‘bad day’. Half of those surveyed said their skin has been at its worse when they were an adult as opposed to a teenager.

One in twenty said the appearance of their skin was terrible when they were pregnant. In fact, 16 per cent said their skin has got spottier as they have got older with the typical female experiencing her worst skin at the age of 24. One in five said having problematic skin made them feel depressed, while a quarter said the affliction just left them embarrassed. Nearly a third (31 per cent) said a bad skin day left them feeling ugly.

Jill Flood, Own Brand Beauty Manager at Superdrug, said: ‘’The general assumption is that we suffer the most problematic skin in our teens – but this research shows this isn’t necessarily the case. Most women will have some type of skin complaint and adult acne is quite a common affliction for women to suffer from, so it’s understandable that most women experience bad skin days.

‘’It can be upsetting if your skin is suffering from a flare-up, whether it’s spotty skin or another skin complaint. It can hugely impact on your confidence and finding the right remedy is not always straight forward as so many factors contribute to the appearance of our skin whether it’s our diet, environmental changes like the weather or even stress.’’

Nearly one in ten regularly suffer from redness and one in twenty moan about dry, flaking skin. White heads, shiny, oily skin and scarring from historic acne were also grumbles for women. In fact, one in seven women have even called off a date because their skin was so bad and one in ten has even pulled a sickie because they were too embarrassed to face their colleagues. More than half of those surveyed said their bad skin usually coincides with their time of the month and three quarters said this puts them in an even worse mood.

It’s hardly surprising then, 45 per cent said their quality of life would drastically improve if their skin was clearer. A third said their love life would be given a big boost and 23 per cent said their career would improve if they had a perfect complexion. Two thirds said they would be far happier when socialising with friends if their face was free from blemishes. A drastic 31 per cent said they would cancel a date if they had a breakout of spots and 10 per cent would even postpone an important business meeting until their skin had cleared up.

Of the 2,000 females polled, well over half (58 per cent) said they are constantly comparing the state of their skin to other women’s. Jill Flood added: ‘’We can’t underestimate just how much someone can be impacted by the appearance of their skin. Very few women will be lucky enough to say they have perfectly clear skin all year around.

‘’But it’s important not to let it get in the way of your everyday life there are products that are out there which remedy spots, dry skin and any other complaints you may be suffering from. ”